The Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Information Industry, will hold an electronic governance technologies and application conference from Aug. 3 to 5 in Beijing.

Shi Guangliang, vice secretary-general of the conference, said here Wednesday that eGovChina 2004 would include forums, symposia, an exhibition and other events.

The focus of development for e-governance in China has already shifted from infrastructure building to application and service providing, Shi said.

Experts estimated that China has an e-governance-related market valued at 40 billion yuan (US$4.8 billion), including 14 billion yuan worth of software products and service.

Shi said that the exhibition will show network, audio and visual and memory products, as well as high-speed broadband telecommunication technologies.

The organizers will also set up an on-line exhibition at the official website, www.egovchina.org.

This is the third such conference since it was launched in 2002.

(People's Daily May 27, 2004)